A ficlet for a man without whom there would have been no Buffy

[lilachigh.livejournal.com]

Title: Pick up the Phone
Author: lilachigh
Rating: None


PICK UP THE PHONE!

He stood in the cool of the back room, where the sun never reached until evening. The tiled floor was cold under his feet but the sweat on his face was hot. He was staring down at the little glass window on the telephone. It showed eleven messages. He hadn’t answered one,

No, that was a lie, of course. He’d listened to the first one, let the grief roll over him and away. But he didn’t want to hear her voice again: telling, explaining, crying, pleading, going from sad to angry with thin overtones of disgust.

If he listened to the calls he would have to act: fly back, be Dad to Dawn, whom he loved but didn’t feel he really knew and to his Buffy who’d been so helpless, sweet and funny until at fifteen, suddenly, she wasn’t anymore.

Comments

[lilachigh.livejournal.com]

I’ve always felt he must be to have attracted Joyce in first place and to be Buffy’s biological father.